Newcastle Glass Still Half Full

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

11:24am Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

Commented 27 times

The Newcastle Journal has pointed out today there is a growing perception inside the Newcastle boardroom, that some people are deliberately looking to undermine the Newcastle manager, Sam Allardyce, to suit other agendas.

Chris Mort – Newcastle Chairman Fully Supports Sam

This is not helpful to the team or to the club of course, but it’s not the first time itâ€™s happened when results on the field are not going well. We believe thereâ€™s very little chance of Chris Mort getting rid of Sam Allardyce before the end of the season. As weâ€™ve pointed out many times, thereâ€™s some very good things happening behind the scenes at the club, that will stand us in very good stead for the years ahead. Developments at the scouting and youth levels are only a couple of the good things happening behind the scenes.

But weâ€™re not stupid, and know the number one priority is to get the results for the first team on the field, and that hasnâ€™t been happening over the last 11 games or so.

In that time we have put in some great performances and some terrible performances â€“ so it depends which ones you want to concentrate on. When you are running a business, you just have to look at the positive things and build on them. If you don’t it’s all downhill, and very quickly so. Performances against Arsenal and Chelsea were great and show a team that isnâ€™t too far off being a good team.

But we are still very inconsistent and thatâ€™s our Achilles heel right now. Sam and his large coaching staff have to instill in the players that they have to be at their best in every game.Â In the Premier league for every game, you have to show up prepared to give your very best. Nothing else is good enough, and with some players having played in other European leagues where that is not necessarily the case, they are finding the transition difficult.

But we think that consistency may be starting to show through. Hey, we donâ€™t want to be stupidly over-optimistic about this, and we expect a good performance tonight. But Newcastle fans at the game tonight will no doubt support the lads, who must give 100% in an effort to get all 3 points. If the players do that, they will get 100% support from the Newcastle fans â€“ who have always been very fair to the team.

So that’s the state of things – it’s either good or bad, depending on where you are coming from. But there’s one thing we should all agree on – we need a good win tonight.

Time to start encouraging players (and even the management) when they go through a rough patch, to keep those rough patches as short as possible. Can’t be there tonight (350 miles away) but I’m hoping those who can will do us proud and make the team feel like they really are supported come what may. With that comes consistent play – it’s not the other way around.

Repeating everything I’ve said in another post….its really important for the fans to be positive, particularly at the match where it can only help the players. We’ve all seen players confidence drain before our eyes as the moaners have had a go during the game. Positive support is so sadly lacking sometimes at SJP. There are too many United fans (although thankfully still in the minority) who think its part and parcel of supporting the team to be constantly negative, have constant inquests about team selection, tactics, results, the managerâ€™s performance, the tea ladies performance, the price of the pies etc Mort has said it. We are going in the right direction building a strong squad and the manager will be given the time he needs to put the foundations in place for success. The fans have a real part to play in this. I’d like just for once to see the moaners pick up their toys, put them back in the pram and get along to SJP tonight and roar Citeh off the park! Cheers Mick

Stop listening to Sam about the support! It starts by giving 100% which we do not at all, all the time!

If I was paid the ammount a footballer gets i’d be sure to work 100%! Sam doesn’t motivate these players! That’s why we don’t back them because they don’t give there all for this club! The buck stops with the manager!

I pay to watch them play, if I buy food and it’s not to my liking I complain! Therefore when I go to a game and I see the crap we’re serving up at the moment I complain! It’s my entitlement to do so because I pay to watch!

UTD: WE – throught season ticket and normal tickets sales – pay these players (and the MANAGER!) to perform at their highest standard! It is not our duty to go out there any put even more into it than out ticket costs.

Of course, we all will go out there and roar the team on, however, the manager also has to keep his end of the bargain. We are entitled to moan about his team selection because we pay money to be entertained….lets not lose sight of this very basic fact! Whether we win, lose or draw we all watch and support the team because we want to be entertained. We do not therefore approve when someone comes in and takes that element away by being negative!

You know what grates on me? The mugs who pay to go and see Newcastle and say “I boo because its my right as I pay”

Simple then, F*ck off and dont pay and go and support Sunderland, Im sure you lot will fit in nicely with the Fickle fairweather fans down there.

We used to be the best fans in the UK if not the world, no longer, as we have the dick heads paying Â£500 quid to sit and moan. Just Pi55 off lads eh? leave the seats to the real fans who go and chant and sing to encourage and SUPPORT!!!

People are entitled to moan, tho it won’t necessarily help. IF you must do it tho do it outside the 90 minutes. During the 90 minutes the team is playing we should get behind them 100% and make as much noise to support them as we can, if then there is a reason to moan we have the rest of the week to moan all we like.

if we have 2 games a week then we should support 100% for those 3 1/2 hours (including half time). Outside of that there is 164.5 hours left of the week for anyone who feels the need to moan which should be plenty of time!!!! 😉

we are entitled to moan, but a subdued nervous atmosphere doesn’t help the lads on the day. we need to be loud and imposing, intimidate the away teams. fine, boo if we’re shite against the unwashed or lose to derby but don’t get caught up with what the Mirror or the Sun’s version of reality is… don’t stoke the fires of the southern press. I can already see the camera flicking to the 2 geordie fans walking to the bog and commentator claiming we’ve all had enough. we need to get behind the lads and show them some decent backing.

we def need a win tonight. I haven’t seen any “great” performances this season, we played fairly well against Arse and Chelski but had far to few shots on goal and hardly troubled either keeper, the problem is that we defend to deep which are obviously Sams tactics, once we go a goal behind we have 7 defenders on the pitch and only milner & one of martins/viduka/owen to punt the ball up to.

If we are being served sh!te and players aren’t putting effort in we have every right to moan at the game, it’s the only way we can get our point across, I doubt Sam and co read any of the nufc websites including this one so how else do you suggest we get our point across!

Steve, (and Bosck) as regards stats and effort. If we go back to the Wigan game, according to the MOTD shower we had no shots on target and no shots off target. (I know Viduka had one overhead shot) but its not easy to get enthused over performances of this sort even for the most blinkered of fan.

The fans will be right behind the team as always but there has to be a catalyst of some sort to get it really going.

honest , i wish half of these muppets that have sly digs at us(the fans) were in arms reach , and they call themselves geordies? outside influences can only put pressure on places there is already cracks . sam walks into their hands by giving them LOTS to write about . so far this season , the only person he hasnt slated in the media is himself , everyone else from the fans to his own bloody players have had a full article from sam himself .

Bosck- Moaning about the perfromances on the field outside of matchtime can’t help,even though BSA ignores us when we moan on a match day in his face anyway. We are a very emotive crowd and when we are this bad and regressing NOT progressing,we should be p*ssed off. If you were a true supporter it would hurt you that bad that you couldn’t stay silent. You think we should be the same no matter what happens on the pitch.LOL. I care,so I speak out. You keep cheering when the manager is so stupid,the formations so ridiculous,the performances so dire that we can’t beat the basement teams,m8.50,000 of you @ SJP = relegation,cheered all the way!

the players are taught to ignore all distraction sanyway so it doesnt matter what we (the fans) do as only the manager and board will hear and acknowledge it and that is generally who we are getting at.

Bosck – i agree and I for one am not one of the booing fans and wouldnt ever do it during a match.

I do however, understand those that do it becuase to some people it is the only that they can express to the manager (or players) that they are unhappy with how the game is going – and that can be directed to a players effort, or the managers tactics…or both.

If nobody booed this season, I doubt the papers would have picked up on how unhappy a lot of people are with Allardyce’s negativity….and it can only be a good thing if they hurry through the exit of FSA from the club so we can get someone positive in!

A month ago I said that the Stoke result could be decisive in big sams future and I was ridiculed on this blog for my observation now it seems others have woken up and I’m not alone in saying that! I hope we don’t get rid of him not cos I like him or his tactics but I can’t see anyone else doing better. Years ao it was said 11 monkeys playing in black and white at SJP would be supported – that maybe true but 11 clowns that don’t appear to care or try won’t and thats what we’ve got at the moment

What has happened to make you think this Ed? I’m not saying you’re right or wrong, I’m just interested on what you’re basing that idea on?

Our Recent “consistent” form: We were decent against Chelsea. Cr*p against Wigan. Cr*p against Derby. Lucky against Fulham. Lucky against Birmingham. Good against Arsenal. Good against Blackburn. Cr*p against Liverpool.

So over the last 8 matches, I make that: 3 Cr*p’s 2 Lucky’s 1 Decent 2 Goods 0 Brilliant

I despair at some of the comments that appear in here. “11 clowns that don’t appear to care or try….” Dave – how accurate is that statement really?? Do you go to the games mate? would you like to be the one to tell Shay Given or Alan Smith that they don’t try?

And this thing about “we pay our money therefore we are entitled to moan about anything we like”. Being a Geordie and Supporting United isn’t about buying a consumer item and complaining “if not 100% satisfied”. Supporting the lads when there was only 22,000 of us was about passion and being a geordie and giving the kind of support to our team that others could only marvel at. And the team, facilities etc in those days were crap compared with the staduim we have now and the quality in the squad. I’m ashamed of some of the comments made in here – some of you sound like spoilt kids who can’t have all of their sweeties. Maybe you’d be better off going shopping with your lass – then you can always whinge if you buy summat you dont like. I’m not sure the club needs fans like you. Cheers

Hey cmon guys, we really need to give the boys the support they desperately need…i’m an exile down in Bournemouth and it is sometimes very painful to be a toon fan because of the stupid things that are said about the team and their fans..i know we are a favourite target for the northern club hating media..so i’ve come to expect the rubbish i see day in day out in the press…but what i don’t like is us booing our boys…bloody hell how are we ever going to improve…don’t forget a good percentage of our team are now imports who don’t fully understand this….let’s just get behind them and raise the roof.. howay the lads

It’s amazing what loads of cash will do to ruin it all. We’ve seen it happen here in the states. More and more corporate tickets and fewer and fewer regular joes in the stands. The NHL is the best example of it. The games are technically sold out, but the stands are at 75% capacity because of all of the corp no shows.

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health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

The cancer spread in the bones but it has been stabilized and has not spread further.

I am still recovering from some of the side effects of the chemo treatment - it's mainly severe fatigue and exhaustion.

Stage 4 cancer is not curable so I will continue to have cat scans and bone scans every four months to ensure the cancer is not spreading.

It is as it is - these things happen - and I will do my very best under the circumstances.

Ed Harrison

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